Finnie

Hi Cory, nice to see you back! Your chicks are beautiful!! (Isn't it fun?) As a refresher, could you put up pics of the parents, too? I remember when you bought them. They were all so cute!

I wouldn't be surprised if he was. It's just that normally it is so hard to see any red, and I thought lutinos had red eyes all the time. So I guess I'll expect lutino hens. It will be interesting to see what the boys look like, to find out what else Aidan is.

Yay! Pinkies!!

This is wonderful news, Dave! How exciting! This spangle guy is my favorite, as soon as I saw him!

Thank you, Rachel.

It doesn't bode well for Matt and Dave that they're the only ones on here, except for a bunch of married women!

Yesterday I finally got my breeding cabinet all cleaned up and back in order for my next round of breeding. So even though I'm not going to give them their nest boxes until some time in August, I'm too excited to wait until then to start my blog! So here are some pictures to introduce this round's pairs. First off is Kevin and Teagan. Teagan was bonded with a different cock downstairs in the community cage. So for now, I'm keeping this pair isolated upstairs until they show signs of bonding to each other. Then I will move them down to their breeding cage. Kevin is a sky blue spangle, possibly split to greywing, and Teagan is I don't know what, so I'm hoping to sort her out. I figure she is either DF dom pied, or some kind of combo pied. She's also opaline, some kind of dilute, and maybe spangle. I'm also hoping she's split to blue, but if not, at least I know all the offspring will be. Now here's Donovan and Finnie: It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to pry Finnie's affections away from Patrick, her old beau! She seems to have taken to Donovan quite well. I'm only going to let this pair have 1 round, though, since it's only been about 4 months since Finnie raised her last clutch. I'm hoping to find out whether Donovan is split to greywing, too. And since they each have one dark factor, and I think violet, I'm expecting to get babies in any shade of blue possible. (Normals and spangles.) My 3rd pair this time around is Aidan and Aveline: Aidan is the one who I could never figure out why his eyes sometimes have a dark red cast to them. In these pictures, which were taken with flash, he looks lutino. But without the flash, and in real life, his eyes are black. You can only see the hint of red under certain light conditions. One possibility is that he might be masking cinnamon, or some other mutation that is plum-eyed. Well, it is finally time to find out- I can't wait! Aidan and Aveline chose each other in the community cage. I originally planned Aveline for a different cock, but I have an even better hen for that one now, so I decided to let Aidan and Aveline stay together. I don't know what they will produce, but that is one of the fun things to look forward to. They've all been moulting, and I recently read in another post that coming off a moult is a good time for them to go into breeding condition. So I'm giving them at least two weeks to be separated from the rest of the flock, and then extra time to finish their moults, if they need it. Hopefully some time in mid-August they will be good to go!

No need to confuse yourself googling the whole internet! We have all the info you need to learn already here on BBC. Here is a post where you can see what other members' recessive pied males look like. (Just to give you an idea of the lavender/pink color that some male budgies have on their ceres.) Member's recessive pied budgies- click here And here is a link to a post that teaches you a lot about telling males from females:budgie ceres- click here You can also go over the the "What sex is my budgie" area, and read tons of posts where people have wanted to know what they've got, and there are lots of examples with pictures. But like Kaz said, the quickest way to find out is to post a picture, and let us tell you!

Hi Drew, welcome to the forum! This is a great place to learn all kinds of things about keeping budgies. When I got my first pair, I knew nothing about them, and I started reading those little "how to care for your budgie" books you can find in pet stores. They helped a little, but after I found this forum, I realized that the information in those little books is very lacking, and some of it is misleading. For instance, the common advice is to switch your bird from a seed diet to a pellet diet. I think this is marketed to those of us who are used to cats and dogs, and who are convinced that a bag of premium kibble is a complete and balanced nutrition, therefore, we want the equivalent of a 'perfect diet' for our birds, too. Another reason for this is because veterinarians almost always recommend pellets over seeds. (I bet yours did ) But after I found this forum, I learned that birds need a varied diet that includes lots of fresh vegetables, as well as seeds, and sometimes supplements like calcium and vitamin D. Pellets can be a good part of a balanced diet for a budgie, but not the sole source of nutrition. This is just one example of the many, many things you will learn here! So browse around, especially read the faq's section, and enjoy the forum. By the way, it's great to see another American here- all the more people to be awake at the same time as me!

I was thinking the same thing. He sure is pretty!

Yup, they love beet greens! Just about any greens you grow for yourselves are good for budgies. With the exception of lettuces, which have too much water. But I still give my birds the darker green parts of some lettuces. I also grow mustard greens for my budgies, and as an added bonus, if you let them go to seed, they make beautiful yellow flowers that last well into fall!

Hi! Welcome to the forum.

Hey, Dave, having a sky light on the roof like that means that on hot days, the direct sun will really heat up the shed. Do you have a plan for some kind of shade cover to pull over that? On the flip side, it should help keep them toasty on sunny days in the winter. Yes he has a plan for shade cover during summer. Dave and I discussed this before he ordered his new shed Cool! (Hee hee, pun intended! )

Hey, Dave, having a sky light on the roof like that means that on hot days, the direct sun will really heat up the shed. Do you have a plan for some kind of shade cover to pull over that? On the flip side, it should help keep them toasty on sunny days in the winter.

This has got me to wondering. She's been cleaning feathers out of the box, but not laying in it. Would it be possible to sacrifice one or two of the eggs by putting them in the box, and then when she goes to clean those out, it might give her the idea to lay her "own" eggs in there?

Dear Angelic Vampire, I'm so sorry for your loss of Blue. It's so sad. You said he was one of your originals. I know he must have been very special. I hope his cage mate is well, and doesn't fall ill. Hugs, Finnie

I can't wait to see how Little Toe progresses!

Hi Blue Marshmallow, welcome to the forum! Your post has been here six hours, and I can't believe I get to be the first one to respond! Since I'm in the US, I usually see things long after everyone else. I saw your other post, too. I think it's great that you are getting all prepared before you get your budgie friend, and that you are looking for a good breeder. (And that you passed up the questionable pet stores- so many people are so excited to get a pet that they take the first one they see, regardless.) You and your budgie are already off to a great start! As for your questions, I think your windows will probably be fine. As long as it's not a drafty window in the winter time, and as long as direct sun isn't going to make your budgie too hot. I like to let my budgies get sun from the window, I just make sure it's not going to roast them. For the frosted window, I would think your budgie would be able to tell the window is there and not fly into it, like it might on a clear window. Keep in mind though, that until your budgie gets used to the room it will be flying around in, it is very likely to smash itself into the regular wall, and everything else, too. That's why some people clip their birds' wings at first. Well, everyone here loves pictures, so be sure to post some of your new budgie, once you get it!

Hi Nate! This all sounds good, and I would think that for successful colony breeding, these statements would all have to be true. But there is always the possibility that there may have been some fighting going on when you were not around to notice. The others had some good points about what could go wrong. Another thing that could happen is that when your hen went out to eat, other birds could have blocked her from getting back into the nest. If they kept her away from the eggs long enough, that could be a reason they died. I hope things go better for you next time!

Cheers. Just wanted to know how strict everyone is with the expiry date. You really can't compare dairy products to pharmaceutical products. Pharmaceutical products don't "spoil" like milk. The expiration date on a medicine indicates that the company has done enough research to be able to guarantee that the chemical component will still be active and potent up until the date. In order to protect themselves, the companies will make sure the date they put on the label is well before the date the medicine will stop working. In fact, they aren't interested in spending the money to research how many years until a medicine stops working. They just have to prove it will last for at least a specific length of time. Many medicines last for a long long time after the expiration date, but the company is protecting itself so no one can sue them. Also, it's better for future sales if people throw everything away after a year and buy new. The pharmaceutical industry is very highly regulated, and the companies would find themselves in a lot of trouble if they tried to label products with an expiration date that was close to when a product would actually become inert. My husband works in global regulatory affairs for a large pharmaceutical company. He says that most expiration dates are set over a year early, and many even longer. In our family, we keep everything for one year after the expiration. As for the ivermectin, I plan to keep mine forever. (Unless some day I get a case of scaley face that doesn't respond, and then I will pitch it and buy new.)

Aw, GB, Im sorry about your youngest egg.

Yes, spangles and normal, both hens and cocks. Spangle is not gender related. And it is dominant, so nothing can be split spangle.

Fingers crossed for you!

And Squeak_Crumble, I'm sorry, but I think the only reason this one seems to have white is because the light is so bright. The majority of that whole cere is so purpley-blue, that I just can't see hen at all. So, Jack, do you think you could get more pictures of the last two in question? There have been a lot of times that as soon as a new picture is posted, it clears everything up and we all agree on what it is. Try to aim for even lighting, so nothing is washed out.

Hi Annie, What a dilemma, huh? I'm new to all this, too. I think you made a fine decision to try to let her nest, if that was what she wanted. You had no way of knowing it would play out like this. I can also see the other side of the coin, that if all she's doing is laying infertile eggs, she is putting a needless drain on herself. I think you still have a little time to wait and see what happens before you have to decide whether or not to (try) to stop her from laying. Maybe you can let her go for a little while longer, just to see if some of the middle eggs really are fertile. Maybe you can put marks on all 11 that she has now, and then if she lays more, you will know which ones are the newest. (You could start numbering the new eggs and keeping a record of the date laid. This would help clear up doubts about the later eggs.) Then after a few days, if the ones with the early marks really are clear, you know which ones are old and which ones are new. Maybe by then she will have stopped laying, which will solve one of your problems. One thing I have heard is that with such a large clutch, the first hatchlings inadvertantly addle the later eggs. Even though it's sad to think that some of the youngest eggs might die, I think the size of the clutch might stay manageable for the hen. One of my clutches had 9 eggs, but only had 4 hatch. I don't know if these suggestions are even good ideas. But I don't think it would hurt to wait 3-5 more days before you pull the plug. Here's hoping that some will hatch, and that will trigger the hen to stop laying. Good luck.